


Ser Nugsalot

by Loverofmostfandoms



Series: Ariaya and Cullen [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cutesy, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 07:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4868165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loverofmostfandoms/pseuds/Loverofmostfandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen is forced to tell Ariaya that her heart is too big for Skyhold to handle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ser Nugsalot

Cullen looked up from his work as he heard the horn sounding the arrival of the Inquisitor and her party from a month long excursion in the Deep Roads. He felt the tension that he didn’t know he had release from his back. As much as he wanted to run down the battlements and sweep Ari up in a hug and kiss her until they were both breathless he knew she had other matters and probably wanted to get settled in. At least that is what he told himself so that he would force himself to do one more hour worth of work before giving her a proper greeting.  
An hour passed and he had finished up all the major important details that were needed at least for the next couple of days. He walked in a hurried fashion down the battlements and through Solas’ tower coming out to Varric next to the fire place in the main hall. “Commander,” Varric said with a knowing smile. Even though he and Ari did not keep his relationship a complete secret it still bothered him a bit that he knew that her companions razzed her when he was not around. He nodded towards the Dwarf and continued on the mission he was set on.  
He pushed open the door and walked the walkway between the main hall the room that he thought of as theirs when she was in Skyhold. He didn’t want to add kindling to the fire by sleeping there when she wasn’t but he tried to spend every night he could with her when she was physically within his reach. As he walked through the door and turned around after closing it he stopped dead in his tracks. What he saw at the top of the stairs was not the woman he loved or anything he expected. What was staring down at him was… a… Nug.  
\- - - ---- - - -  
Yes a nug was staring down at him and it seemed every movement he made the little beast bore his eyes into Cullen’s soul.  
“Ari, dear, are you up there?” Cullen asked cautiously thinking the thing would jump at him in a moments notice, even though he knew that Nugs were docile he didn’t want to take any chances. She had been in the Deep Roads and who knows what she could have brought back.  
“Yes, I am up here,” as Ari poked her wonderful face over the railing to her room. Her dark red hair tumbling around like it had a mind of its own.  
“Can you please explain” he pointed to the creature, “this?”  
“Oh I didn’t know he was there, meet Ser Nugsalot.” She said with a huge smile on her face. 

“Come on up, he isn’t going to hurt you, he is actually very cuddly for a nug.” Ari’s face disappeared from over the railing and she walked over to the apparently knighted nug, picked him up and then set him on her, their bed.  
“I’m sorry dear but I have no plans to cuddle a nug,” Cullen said still wary of the thing as he walked up the stairs. He finally tore his eyes off the offending creature and looked over his lover who was dressed in loose sleep pants and a large tunic, which seemed to have been his at some point. She was taking her hair as he was speaking to her and putting it on top of her head in the messy bun he so loved seeing her in. It was the best way to see her because it meant she was relaxing and didn’t plan on leaving their room for the night. His plans though for what their night entailed seemed to be halted though by the room crasher.  
He quickly closed the distance between them scooping her up in his arms and laying kisses all over her face and bear neck. She went to return the favor until they both heard annoying squeaks. Both stopped and looked over at the interrupter. Ser Nugsalot was staring them down from the bed and squeaking for Maker knows what.  
“Okay, Ari I am going to ask this once, why is Ser Nugsalot here, in our room, in Skyhold?” Cullen asked trying to tiptoe around the main reason but he couldn’t bring himself to mention her favorite hobby it would seem.  
“Oh Cullen, so while in the Deep Roads we came across this area where it was nugs everywhere and then all of a sudden this little Nug jumps on this throne and apparently put me and the party on trial,” she was beaming as she said it, “Well afterwards all of them left except this guy here, he seemed to be too little to keep up with the other ones so he was just crying in one of their nests. I couldn’t bring myself to leave him alone since it seemed we were the ones that scared all of them away. So I adopted him.”  
“Ari, are you sure this is a good idea. Nugs are not domesticated for the most part and you tend to bring home little strays all the time and they don’t usually end well. “  
Ari dropped her hands from him and walked towards the bed to pick up Nugsalot. “One, Leliana has a pet nug and they are also domesticated in Orzammar. Two I don’t always bring home strays and name one that has ended badly?”  
“Master Dennett can still not keep up with your Nuggalopes that you so happened to buy on a whimsy because the person was selling a box”  
“I wanted to know what was in the box!!”  
“The Druffalo calf you brought home is still meandering around the courtyard and sometimes messes up morning training routines because he wants to play.”  
“At least he wants to play and he doesn’t want to kill any of the soldiers”  
“The biggest one of all, the time you felt bad about killing the three dragons in the Emprise du Lion, so you brought home Dragon Eggs and watched over them for a month in the heat of the blacksmith until they hatched. Before long even though they weren’t trying to hurt anyone they almost burnt down the tavern and half of Skyhold!”  
“That wasn’t just me! Iron Bull wanted to see if we could raise them to ride in to battle or something like that, and the minute they were a bigger issue than we thought we released them back in to the wild once they knew how to hunt.”  
Cullen sighed before giving her the hard truth, “my dear, I love you want to help everything in Thedas you think you can help and I love you want to save those that can be saved, but in reality your heart is just too big for Skyhold to handle at times. If we had a massive amount of land we could get to easily and not on the top of a mountain I wouldn’t be so cautious, but at the moment you need to look at the other people that are effected. I can’t kick my soldiers out of the barracks to turn in to an animal wing. I am not asking you to change, just to maybe focus on normal animals everyone can handle like a kitten or a Mabari.”  
Ari looked up at him with the sad eyes she knew she could get him to agree to anything with, but as she let what he said sink in she realized he was right. “Okay, I understand. We can move the other animals to a safer location or back to their actual environments. What about Ser Nugsalot? He doesn’t take up much space and he is awfully cute?”  
Cullen thought, cute was a stretching it a bit. Then he thought of something brilliant.  
“My dear think about it, you are not going to be at Skyhold for maybe a week here and a week there. I know nothing about raising a Nug but I do know someone in our inner circle that does and she is here all the time. Why don’t you talk to Leliana and see if she wouldn’t mind taking over the care of Ser Nugsalot and then you could visit him when you are home?” He smiled down at her thinking his plan was brilliant.  
“That.. actually is a really good plan, let me go talk to her right now before she settles in for the night of gossiping with Josephine. “ With that she scooped up the smug looking nug and walked out of their room, in her night clothes and messy hair, not caring who saw it.  
Well there goes my plan to woo her out of her clothes tonight, as Cullen sighed and began to get ready for bed himself. He didn’t realize how tired he was.  
\------  
An hour later Ari silently snuck back up to their room and gazed at her lover. He was so perfect lying in the moonlight of the bed she knew he didn’t use when she was away. As much as she wanted to wake him he looked so peaceful, so she snuck under the covers and curled into his side, kissing his shoulders before closing her eyes.  
She didn’t have the heart to tell him the real reason she kept rescuing all the strays in the world she could find. It was because she had a big heart, but also it was because she was filling a void she wanted to close with him but not at the moment. She wanted someone to love as her own, the perfect mixture of her and Cullen. She wanted to be a mom.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope everyone likes what they are reading. I know it has been mainly cutesy things. I am working on some other stuff as well.


End file.
